The Vikings Made Fools of the Lions
The Minnesota Vikings are doing Minnesota Vikings things, refusing to let a disappointing season swirl down the toilet in pursuit of relevance and respectability. Playing the role of spoiler on Christmas Day — so, yes, The Grinch — Minnesota dropped Detroit 23-10 and effectively ended Dan Campbell’s season. The Lions cannot qualify for the playoffs, despite the all-in stakes professed by the coaching staff and front office at the start of the year.
The Vikings didn’t just beat Detroit — they dragged the Lions through full desperation mode and made the whole thing look way too easy, especially on defense.
In a game that featured historically poor quarterback play for the Vikings, Kevin O’Connell and Co. made the Lions look like fools. Utter fools.
Minnesota Turned Christmas into a Lions Nightmare
The Lions haven’t looked this buffoonish in a half-decade.
1. Undrafted free-agent quarterback Max Brosmer led the way for Minnesota, filling in for J.J. McCarthy, and as a result, the Vikings finished with 3 passing yards. Yes, a trio of passing yards. Let’s say this loud and clear: Minnesota should have lost and probably handily. But Detroit turned the ball over 6 times. That’s a death sentence for every team in the NFL. Brian Flores outworked the entire Lions coaching staff and made that hodgepodge of NFL brains look silly.
2. Brosmer should compete for the Vikings’ QB3 job next summer — that’s it. He doesn’t have the chops to be a starter in the NFL, and he’s proved this season that he shouldn’t be the QB2 next year. Props to him and the team for beating Detroit, but hopefully somebody within the organization realizes that Brosmer was a liability, not an asset, on Thursday.
3. It’s always better to beat a division rival when that team’s playoff hopes hang in the balance than lose and increase the draft pick or enhance the following year’s schedule. The sooner you discover that players and coaches are not in the “tanking” business, the happier you will be watching sports.
4. Throwing for 3 yards and getting sacked 7 times while still winning a game by 13 points will make a hardcore NFL fan’s brain short-circuit. This stat is a total indictment of the Lions as an organization. Optimistic Detroit fans will maintain that the Lions’ Super Bowl window is wide open, but the evidence suggests it might be a steeper climb up the hill with Jared Goff’s cap hit checking in at $70 million next season — nearly a $40 million increase from 2024 to 2025.
5. Dallas Turner produced another monster game, and it feels like we’ve typed that exact sentence in the postgame reaction article about four times this season. The man has unbelievable speed, and when he starts to round into a finished product, fans will realize that he was worth the meaty investment during the 2024 NFL Draft.
6. Justin Jefferson needs 53 yards to keep his 1,000-yard streak alive, the one only occupied by Randy Moss and Mike Evans through a player’s first six career seasons. Minnesota won’t do this, but if McCarthy cannot play because of the hand injury, O’Connell should almost consider playing veteran John Wolford. He’ll likely complete more passes than Brosmer.
7. Blake Cashman had 17 tackles last week, and he had 17 tackles this week. This time, though, he also added a sack, tackle for loss, and quarterback hit. The Eden Prairie native is a machine, and he should play out the rest of his career with the Vikings. That’s the official position of VikingsTerritory.com.
8. In some games during the middle of the season, Harrison Smith looked like a guy who needed to retire at season’s end. Smith, however, has reversed that inevitability, now playing like a dude who should stick around for one more run in 2026 and play, for example, 20-30 snaps per game. The longtime Viking and Hall of Fame hopeful will probably walk away next month, but he’s playing at a level that suggests staying power for one more year. He looked phenomenal on Christmas.
9. Andrew Van Ginkel also played wonderfully, bringing to life his disruptor role. Like Cashman, the Vikings should let Van Ginkel stick around as long as he wants.
10. Speaking of sticking around as long as someone wants, the will-he-stay-or-will-he-go conversation about Brian Flores will turn white-hot in about 10 days. Flores deserves another head coaching job in the NFL, but owners might be skittish about taking the plunge because his lawsuit against the league is still active. If the NFL keeps him on an island, he, too, should stay with the Vikings forever.
11. O’Connell called a terrific game, considering his quarterback was futile, and his offensive line was ravaged. If you still think O’Connell should “give up playcalling,” you should really study his plays, rather than young and often imbecilic quarterbacks running them. The plays are beautiful. See: the game-sealing touchdown run by Jordan Addison. Eventually, McCarthy will execute the plays properly, or the Vikings will find someone who can.
12. If the Green Bay Packers beat the Baltimore Ravens, and the Chicago Bears lose to the San Francisco 49ers, the Vikings can play the spoiler role again in Week 18 by defeating Green Bay at home, while hoping the Lions beat the Bears. That plan assumes Vikings fans would rather have Green Bay get a Wildcard spot than a division title.
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